Burning Ambition Part 4: The nightmare of turning a story into a game
by at March 19, 2008 11:00 am
Sections: Developers, Features, Game-Companies, Indie, Opinions, PCs
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Up until this part of development, everyone that is on board with the project has been throwing around ideas, elements that they want included and generally getting to know one another. But as you begin to take those ideas and implement them into the actually game design document, at least half the team won’t like the direction that the game is going, while the other half, probably won’t care.
As I had stated in Part One of this series, if you are not a real writer (and I mean a pro who knows what they are doing) don’t try to write all the basic story information and design documents yourself. While a lot of people may fancy themselves a writer, being able to put your thoughts down on paper and having to create a complete multi-leveled universe with complex characters are two entirely different things. Your writers are probably going to be the busiest person on the team early on, whether they are story, quest, level or technical writer. Often times, one writer can even do it all.
Also, if your company isn’t well structured, it will begin to affect the work that is being done. Independent developers want to have a open and fair system and a place where everyone has a say on everything that goes into the game. I will be the first to tell you, this doesn’t work. In fact, it is a nightmare.
Now, I am not saying that you should ignore the input coming from your team, just be mindful that they might not be thinking about what is best for the game.
Your independent company – regardless of size, money or number of people – has to run like a well-oiled machine as soon as possible or you will find that production will start to spin, going nowhere fast.
Early in Burning Man Studios‘ production of Ruthless Earth, everyone had a say on the game. After a while, we weren’t sure who had the final say when the main boss wasn’t around, as Steven was the lead designer, producer, director, CEO, project manager, etc. Team members would argue for hours, if not days, on the smallest of details.
Assign your leads quickly. Find people who think first about what is best for the game. No matter what, you will never be able to include everything that you wanted the first time around.
Also, remember that you are making this game for the public. While you might be telling a story that suits your tastes and interest, be mindful that all because there is a element in games that you hate, that scores of gamers don’t love or wouldn’t enjoy.
Another point for of all you potential CEO and producers out there, is to let your writer do his or her thing. Probably the best thing that Steven did right off the bat was to let me do my work. For Ruthless Earth, he had only giving me a general outline of the story, theme and the game premise. After that, I was left alone for several weeks to come up with the entire universe, races, classes, powers and the story outline, with periodic checks to make sure what I was doing fit into the overall vision. If you are shadowing your writers and artist constantly, then they will loose the one thing all artist want most of all, their freedom to work.
One of the best things I can recommend for upstart independent companies is, when the time comes to put your foot down and restructure, do so and do not hesitate.
Firing people or telling them that the work isn’t good enough is never easy. Some have claimed it is looking a gift horse in the mouth, as you might not be paying your team member anything to work for you. While it is always appreciated that people are willing to put a couple hours a week into working on the company’s game, you still have to run your company like a business. If someone isn’t performing to your expectations, regardless if they are being paid or not, you have to make them aware of your disappointment. If you are willing to let things slide and let unproductive team members get away with missing deadlines, then you really don’t care about your game or company.
The last point to make on this subject is that your team, especially your leads, has to trust one another. In our case, Steve is now focused solely on the growth of BMS while I am allowed to work on the story, game and art of Conquest of Heroes without having someone looking over my shoulders all day. If a team clicks and becomes friends, then it can be quite amazing how well people begin to work together.
In the end, trust is key to development.
Read all 10 weeks of “Burning Ambition: How to make your mark on the videogame industry:”
Site [Burning Man Studios]
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